Memories
by uneartistesolitaire
Summary: Seven years after the events of Spirited away, Chihiro is sad, one day she ends up in the Spirit Land again.   I know, bad summary, and 1st chapter isn't all that interesting, I promise, it will get better.
1. School

"Chihiro, it's time for breakfast." A slightly concerned mother knocked quickly on the slim door as it creaked open and sighed; she didn't have time to be waking up her seventeen year old daughter.

"Are you okay?" still, she didn't want to be rude to her, the girl had never been a problem to her (if slightly annoying), and she was always been more respectful since the day they had moved six years ago.

The reality was, the teenager was not okay, she hadn't been entirely that way since she visited the Spirit World, and had been plagued with strange and sometimes disturbing dreams. That day had been no exception, but that night's vision had been especially disturbing, and the girl was exhausted from it. She'd been tossing and turning since three in the morning.

"Chihiro…" repeated her mother, "What's wrong, do you not feel well?" the woman peered into the sparsely furnished room to glance at her daughter.

"I'm fine, mother. I just got… a little dizzy." She replied simply and she rolled onto her stomach to slip her legs to the cold floor.

"As long as you are okay…" she left and continued on her way to leave the blue house they resided in.

_She never really cares… _the girl stood up, finally untangling her long legs completely from the thick beige and green covers of her bed. She flexed her toes and reached up to the ceiling with a sigh. It would be just another almost uneventful day in the life of Chihiro Ogino.

After fixing her bed sheets and taking out her high school uniform quickly, she resumed her exactly timed routine fifteen minutes behind schedule. Ever since her not so clear experience with Yubaba, she had become very different from whom she had been back then. So now, every day Chihiro knew exactly what to do and at what time to do it, and had enough experience to know that if one strayed from such a planned path, things could go quite wrong.

Another sigh escaped her full lips and she went about her way in the quick fashion she usually did and still arrived at her school ten minutes earlier than most students.

She stopped at her locker and put her blue bag in and slipped the thin books out from it then placed them onto her forearm. The lean girl pressed her palm against the cold door full of diamond slits in it and started her day with a tired mind.

Her first class took forever to start and end, just like the class after that and that. When it was finally time for her break time, with quick and long strides, she took her small bento from her locker. She sat in her usual corner on the top of the stairs with a book and a pencil and waited for the last couple of girls wandering the halls to disappear from her view.

The young woman dug into her lunch after grasping the chopsticks with her left hand dexterously and writing in the journal with the other. She began once more jotting down endless details of her 'adventure' in the land of Spirits. This had begun the day she got back; she had needed something to hold her memories or dreams or whatever they were in a desperate attempt to ground her mind.

She never told anyone about what she saw that day after the sun went down. There was an innate feeling that no one would believe her, and as the years went by, she was right. Nobody believed in fairytales about giants and princesses with miles of beautiful hair, much less would they believe _she _had interacted with beings as precious as spirits.

A gentle bell rang once to remind her that her time was almost over and that is she didn't eat up the rest of her rice it would spoil in her locker by the end of school. Without another thought about the endless amounts of food in the hallways of the baths of the other world, she took a large amount of the soft grains and opened her mouth wide to fit.

Still chewing on the moist rice, Chihiro closed her lunch and book and stuck her pencil behind her ear. She stood up and walked to drop off her box and hid her precious book deep behind everything else.

In the afternoon she changed her a-line skirt and button up shirt for blue shorts and a white t-shirt. The shorts were revealing, shorter than the salmon ones she used to wear half a decade ago, and they made her slightly uncomfortable, even after three years of wearing similar ones.

That day they were staying inside since it had started to rain outside, and they were doing recreational sports or walking. The girl wasn't one to surround herself with friends, and the only good acquaintance she had was absent that day, so she decided to walk and watch the others have a good time.

With a comfortable sigh, Chihiro left the school after her last and unusually boring class, her home was a long while away from school so she took the train to avoid tedious walk. She flipped open her blue cell phone to call her mother, when no one answered she tried her father, with a really sad sigh, she shut the electronic and dropped it into the bag at her side.

No one ever answered after school anymore, not since the deaths of both grandmothers. After that happened her parents slowly started to spend less time with her, she reminded them too much of them. But they still loved their daughter and had breakfast and dinner with her on work days and went out as a family on Sundays. Yet, nothing really could replace the longing she sometimes felt, it's not like it was there every minute of the day, but twice a year it crept up on her and made her sad.

She shook those thoughts from her head and finished her walk to her large blue house and unlocked the door.


	2. The Memories

Chihiro's POV-

I pushed past the door and shut it with the tip of my foot and I didn't have to listen too closely to know no one else was home. They were hardly here anymore, and since they hadn't answered my calls I knew I would spend most of the fourth anniversary of one of my grandmas' death alone. It would be like this again in a month too, so I prepared myself to not have it affect me too much. History had once more repeated itself. I laughed as I remembered someone had once told me that things didn't happen the same way twice, I had proved them wrong, for the third time.

I'd have to make dinner, but instead, I decided to grab a small sandwich from the refrigerator and headed to the stairs to my room. I don't know what had taken over me, but I stood at the doorway observing my room. Maybe it was the thought that my parents were gone, grieving for one of their deceased family member, and I was here feeling sorry for myself, pitying the fact that I was alone. I decided to be grateful I had a room to myself, instead of being poor and living in a one room apartment. _Besides, being alone wasn't so bad, I enjoyed my time by myself, _I thought.

The thin bed was pushed against one wall, the brown bookcase against the opposite one, and my drawers full of clothes under the window. My bed had a light beige cover with a large pastel green stripe at the end of it, and a long pillow on it with a plush pink one on top of that. On the drawers sat my clock and a round glass vase behind it. In it was a small cherry blossom with tiny flowers, my grandmother, on my mom's side, had given it to me once she knew I liked them.

Consequently, my room had the pleasant fragrance of the blossoms almost all year-round, instead of just spring, when the ones outside bloomed.

I changed into a pair of light, salmon pink jeans and a white tank top with a light blue button up shirt over that. After letting my long hair loose and running my hands through it, I sighed, I really needed a hair cut since my locks were nearly at waist. I preferred my hair longer than shoulder length, but not this long, I'd have to ask for some money another day.

I fell onto the ottoman that made up my bed lazily. Laying my head onto the long pillow I stared at the cream ceiling above me, and chewed on the cold bread and meat.

My vision blurred significantly and I sniffed remembering the two memories I had of my grandmother. 

The way she smelled of water lilies, and how her grey eyes shined when she saw me. The hot tears streamed down my face and I swallowed the rest of my food_. _

_ She was gone, she wasn't coming back... Why! Grandma couldn't be gone, she would never have abandoned us, but she had, and I couldn't do a thing about it. She had to come back, for me, right? I was her only granddaughter. Where was she...? Why did she leave...?_

_ Get a grip on yourself! Things like these happen to everyone, and you don't see them still crying over it like this four years later. Accept it, she isn't coming back. _I used the discipline I had issued years ago to calm myself, and found myself exhausted._  
><em>

I blinked and noticed the sun was shining a bit less, and its orange rays were sprayed across the dull floor. As I tried to get up, a deep pounding at my temples held me back. It felt like someone was hammering against the sides of my head. But even in pain, I could tell something was off, when I glanced at the pearl white clock on my dark drawers, it read 5:30 pm. 

_What?_ I'd slept for hours... With a groan, I fell back onto my bed, _when had I fallen asleep_, I asked myself. It was later than usual, and I was considering not doing my homework for once. There were two more days until the end of my third year of high school, my exams were over and I only had a chapter of scheduled reading for my English class. 

With another groan I sat up slowly, and opened my eyes, I shook the sleep from my mind and started my reading. Why did English have to be such a difficult language? I finished and went to the bathroom; I took a small hand towel and ran it under the sink, within seconds it was dripping in cold water. After twisting it to leave any excess water out, I left. Back in my room I reached into a drawer in my bookcase and turned up some music on the iPod seated on speakers. I laid down on the firm ottoman and shivered as I pressed the towel on forehead and listened to the soft melodic sounds that soon danced all over my room. Piano, violin… violin, flute, piano… singing… I listened to some of the more soothing music for a while.

After an hour or so, I heard the door open and the rattle of keys downstairs. Ignoring the noise, I took the damp fabric off my face, finally relieved of my headache and had a damp forehead which I wiped with my sleeve. 

"Chihiro, come down." I heard my father say. When I finally stepped onto the level floor, both parents were there, with small sad smiles. 

"What's the matter?" I wondered. 

"We think it's time to stop being so depressed, and to make up for the past years we want to go somewhere we haven't been to for a long time." The left, expecting me to follow and when the three of us got into the newer black car, I asked,  
>"Where are we heading to?" From the back seat I could see my dad's eyes look at me in the rear-view mirror. <p>

"Somewhere with good food." With a smile he looked back at the road to leave our neighborhood. Knowing my dad wouldn't give up any other information, I slumped back into the grey cushion. It wasn't until I saw an all too familiar bunch of 'little houses' on the higher road the car was about to turn on make did it start to dawn on me_. No. We couldn't go back. Not to that place. I'd spent the last seven years avoiding it, I couldn't go back now._ Panic started rising in my stomach, tying everything in tight knots_. How would I explain to them we can't go in?_

I looked up at the sky, the sun was still up, and we had an hour to get back. My breathing quickened, I didn't want to go back, I didn't want to remember the way I had been scared half the time there.

I didn't want to remember Yubaba and Zeniba any more than I already did. Or the frogs, or the maids, the bright colors, and the strange spirits. I wanted to keep them at bay, in my book, forever locked in there, not in front of me, much less speaking to me.

Memories, no, dreams, that's all they were, nothing else than the project of my imagination trying to give that park a story, right? I was ten, my mind was playing tricks on me or something… or, could it have really happened? I didn't know anymore, I never did know if it had actually happened.

I recalled the years behind me trying to figure out if I was crazy, the frustration of never truly knowing. The years of uncertainty... these visions or whatever they were had shaped me into a more careful person, I would make sure this never happened again. And now, the power was being taken from me once more, like back then, in the bath house, I had to be in that town because my parents had wanted to see it, and now it was happening… _again._

"Oh! I forgot to get something at the store, let's stop by for a minute, okay?" My mother's words took my out of my turbulent thought and had me grateful for reasons I hoped they would never understand. I didn't want them to know anything of what had happened, to give them more problems than they already had with three of my grandparents dead. With a distracted 'okay' my father turned in the other direction. _Good, maybe if it is too dark when we got back we won't go after all. _I didn't hope fro much in my life, I knew hopes only came true if you worked for them, but this time I decided to let myself wish with all my might.

I twisted around me to pull my seat belt across my chest when I caught a glance of a bird coming straight to the car. I was about to point it out when I noticed it had a large nose, and beady brown eyes. My own eyes widened and a scream was caught in my throat as it collided with the glass. I recognized it, from the Spirit World. 

A piercing scream rang in the air, and the tires screeched, my view was taken from the bird suddenly to a frightened child on the street. My heart skipped numerous beats, and I felt waves of nausea flooding my body. _No, no, no, we're going to hit him_, I thought. I shut my eyes so I didn't see what would happen when we crashed, when I knew we hadn't, my shoulders shuddered in relief. Instead the toddler was being carried away in the safety of his mother's arms. A weak smile adorned my face and fatigue claimed my mind.

Just then, my ears almost bled with the enormity of a horn's blasting sound, adrenaline suddenly rushed through my veins as I knew even without looking behind me what would happen. Desperately I tried to crawl out of the back seat, but my fingers fumbled with the lock on the door.

I saw my dad pulling my mother out of the front seats, _at least they're safe._ I saw him coming at the back door but ran away after a second. That was when I knew, my arms flew up around my head and I threw myself on the floor of the car as if that would protect me from something I knew was much too out of control.


	3. Chapter 3

**I will not be putting POV's on the stories, unless a new point of view is put in here, since I do think it insults the reader. And the first chapter was written in a narrative form, it was no one's POV. Just a Heads-up to anyone (if anyone reads this).**

When my eyes fluttered open, I immediately felt some warm liquid trickling down the left side of my face. Groaning I pushed myself off of the soft green grass and folded my legs underneath me as I tried to locate myself. It felt like someone was pushing down on my chest so that I could only breathe the minimum.

As I turned to look to my left, I came face to face with a large stone with an immense face carved on it. My eyes widened and the action was followed by a large grimace, it pained me to make the smallest movements. Ignoring my initial shock, I gripped the side of its ear and with the shakiest arms, pulled myself onto the rock, my hands itching slighty.

A delicate cold wind brushed again my back and neck. Thankfully, I had put on my brown leather jacket and boots before I'd left the house.

_The house! Wait…_ I frowned, my mind was foggy and my thoughts had become murky like the water in a pond.

_We left the house, and… the boy, we were going to hit a boy with the car, _I pursed my lips and I felt tiny needles prickling the muscles around my mouth and I winced in pain. _Well, we didn't hit him, why is it so difficult to remember? Oh, we stopped and a horn… my parents got out of the car and... That's it. I can't remember any more. _With a sigh I closed my eyes and bent my head against the moldy surface beneath me.

After a while, I shoved myself away from and staggered back trying to regain balance but failed. I fell on my side, finally, I got up with a decent enough walk, but still managed to look like a lost drunk. Which, may as well be true, I hadn't drunk any liquor, but I certainly felt like someone had run me over.

I walked for a bit and saw a clock high in the sky, it was attached to an enormous building. With a loud gasp, it all came to me, the bath house. Trembling I looked up to the sky, finding it was the sky blue I last remembered when I last saw Haku_. Oh, Haku,_ suddenly, I longed for his jade green eyes, and the touch of his hand, and the feeling of security he gave me.

Limping over to one of the restaurants on the side, I sat down on a red stool, with tears running down my face I thought, _this couldn't happen again. Once more, I'm not sure if I'm dreaming or if it's real. I couldn't believe in these kinds of things like I did seven years ago, I couldn't believe in Haku, or Granny, or Lin._

"Who are you?" a clear voice interrupted my thoughts and I looked up, a thin trail of dark red liquid dripped in front of my head onto the back of my hand, I realized I was bleeding.

I beautiful girl not much older than me stood a few feet from me. Her porcelain skin glowed with vitality, and her strange blue eyes contrasted with her face. The girl's features were obviously Asian, she had a soft nose and full lips, and yet her clear cut eyes held sea-like orbs.

She wore a dark blue outfit, and sandals on her feet, a small basket on her forearm held bunches of what looked like medicinal herbs.

"I said, who are you." It wasn't a question anymore, more like a demand. Her black eyebrows furrowed and she looked suspicious, before, her face had shown curiosity, not anymore. My heart picked up a beat as I thought of what she might do to me if she found in me a threat.

"Ogino, Chihiro." I did my best imitation of a bow with great difficulty, she returned the introduction.

"Maiya, Eriko." The girl's voice sweet and had a soft soprano tone to it, with a low bow, she walked tentatively towards me. When she was right in front of me, she tried to run her fingers through my hair, but I flinched, I wasn't used to physical contact with others.

"Oh, sorry." She dropped her hand to her side, "You're hurt, I can help you, and then you can tell where you are from. Spirits sometimes are lost, it seems like you are, but they usually don't end up here, at a resting place…" she trailed off, and I could tell she was thinking.

_A spirit? Ha, she must be joking, last time I 'was' here, I was human, I _reeked _of it, as everyone had not so gently pointed out to me. Whatever, maybe she's just being nice._

With a frown, I pushed myself off the chair and stood, I swayed slightly before I steadied myself. I noticed a long ringing noise that had been at the back of my head was gone.

"Come, I'll show you the way." She walked forward at a steady pace. Eriko was a couple centimeters shorter than me, and had slightly larger hips and breasts than me. Her face was less sharp, and her gaze was back to a soft warm look. In all, Eriko Maiya was a more feminine and motherly creature than me, she was someone who seemed to have no worry at all and would offer a smile to anyone.

We didn't get far away from the village I knew was a vacation to spirits, and ended up at a two- floored cement block connected to the bath house. Once inside, she offered me tea as I sat on a white stool in a room full of medical objects. A cabinet door was slightly ajar and I could see bandages and small bottles of different colored liquid, obviously medicine.

Though friendly, I didn't trust her much, so I asked for water instead, I could smell or see if anything was wrong with it. She brought it to me quickly and left for the cabinet on the other side of the room.

"Rest on the table, you may want to get used to leaning on it, I'll need to inspect that wound of yours." She called merrily, as if she saw this everyday, maybe she did, I had not way of knowing.

I did as she suggested, the table was long and thin and about the width of my forearm.

"So, how did you get here?" she inquired.

"Who are you." I tried to keep the menace out of my voice, and tried to give it a hint of curiosity that I didn't have. I wanted to know out of my innate sense of safety, not because I wanted to be friends.

I heard a soft sigh as she came back, "I'm the 'medic' as the people of the bath house would call me. I cure them in any way I can, may it be a bruise, or a burn or even a broken bone. I mean, I'm the only one with healing magic besides Yubaba and her sister. But they won't help them. But I only use the magic in little proportions, to hurry things up, so to speak."

I'd have to prove this with Lin or someone from the actual bath house when I left, that is _if _I got away. I gave her a respectful nod and crossed my arms on the table before me, bending my head towards her, giving permission to her ministrations.

She go to work immediately, brushing back my hair out of the way, and dabbing at the wound with a damp cloth. It stung and I shivered slightly, trying to keep control of my body and not showing her what I felt. Everything was so sensitive, and I finally cried out when the needle pierced the surrounding flesh of my scalp. "Sorry." She muttered.

I kept quiet the rest of the time. Finally, she wiped my forehead with a towel,

"Let me see your hands." Her expert hands took mine and she wiped those too, making lots of tiny cuts visible to me for the first time, _so that was the uncomfortable itch…_

Eriko guided me to a small bathroom and started a bath. When she left, the aroma of jasmine was thick in the room and I stripped then slowly dipped myself into the tub. With an odorless soap and towel I scrubbed at my skin then I massaged a thick formula in a square container into my long hair. I had never pampered myself with baths before; decided to avoid them just like since I had been here last time. I shut my eyes and heard the soft glide of the door and a couple of footsteps and the door closed once more. I got out quickly after that, noticed she had left me a towel, and clothes. A blue pair of ankle pants and a thin long sleeved shirt, a white tank top to put on underneath that were folded neatly on a small rounded table next to the large tub.

I dressed in a fast manner, ignoring the pulsing that was once more throbbing in my head, this time I knew exactly where it was coming from After grabbing my hair and squeezing the water out of it, I took the advantage to spread some lotion on my elbows, knees, face and hands. I left the buttons on the cerulean blue shirt alone and shot my hands through my waist length leather jacket. I tucked my socked feet into my old boots and took handfuls of hair and bound them into a ponytail.

Leaving the bathroom with my now folded pants, tank top, and blue shirt in hand, I looked around the hall on the second floor.

"Eriko, I'm done." I called out as I strolled down the hallway and found a staircase leading downstairs.

Back in the room with the medicine, I sat as she put things away or threw them out.

"Thank you." I bowed, finally making it properly, "I greatly appreciated your… help."

"No need for such formalities, and your welcome, it was my pleasure treating you wound, oh wait." She skipped over to me with bandages and she quickly wrapped my hands lightly with them after applying a thin serum.

"Don't want those opening up at all, huh? Will you be going to Yubaba now?"

I nodded and held my hands at my sides in loose fists.

"Okay," she brought over a white messenger bag and gave it to me. "Here, take it," with a smile she led me to the door.

I felt guilty from taking so much from her, new clothes, water for a bath, medicine, a new bag.

"I'm in debt with you, Eriko, if you… ever need a favor, or many, I'll do it, okay"

"Ha, okay, I'll make sure to remember that, I'll see you some other time." With a brilliant smile, she closed the door and I headed in the vague direction of what I thought to be the entrance to the boiler room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for practically falling off the face of the Earth for the past… who knows what amount of time… Starting in June 1st, updates will be coming every Friday until the start of the school year, which will be late August, around the 24th. If anyone does read my story, thanks. This will be a small update, sorry. Reviews/comments are appreciated, however small they are.**

Haku's POV

I sighed and rested my head against the chair inside the small house in the woods. I liked being in Zeniba's home, it was much more comfortable than the bathhouse was or ever will be. It was so peaceful here, the No-Face demon was here gluttonously trying anything the witch offered him, it didn't bother me anymore to be in the same room as the demon who once was about to swallow up someone very special to me anymore. This was a routine, being here at Zeniba's; I had stayed here for a couple of months before I made myself my own house to live in, and ever since, I had visited the witch for the weekend. There was always a pleasant mood here, and it immediately repelled any animosity I could be feeling.

But today, today was different, whatever spell the woman had put on her property wasn't working. I had come in, and instead of feeling happy of seeing my old companion, I still felt as melancholy as I had on the fly here. I was restless; I had tried once more to see if I could get through to the other world, the one where _she_ lived in and had felt something, a tug at my gut, but it disappeared after a bit. I couldn't help but feel as if I had almost gotten through, but something on the other side had interrupted me. Or maybe it had been my fault, maybe I did something wrong, and I affected the connection.

It felt like something bad. The feeling was still in me, but now it manifested in my veins, in the air I breathed and in the thoughts I had. Could something have happened to her? It had to be a very intense feeling if it was to cut the ties we had that fraction of a second so severely.

"Haku, you're oozing wretchedness, if you aren't feeling well, go and rest in the spare room."

"Forgive me, I'm just worried."

"Go on." The woman was working with the demon on the spinning wheel this time but I could tell she would listen to me.

"It's… her." I heard her take in a loud breath of air, as if to hide a gasp. This was reasonable, since we hadn't spoken about her since the day she had left. That was the last week I was ever as happy as then.

"What about her?"

"I tried to get through."

"It wasn't successful."

"No. I've tried to get passed the barrier often," _more like once every week_, "The petal that had fallen from her clothes is the only way I can attempt to do it, and today, I could sense her near the barrier. But suddenly, it was like a knife sliced the thin thread connecting us. And I can't keep this feeling of… dread from me."

"Oh, Haku. Dear, you've had a stressful day, and I know you probably blame yourself, but, things happen on their world too. Maybe she was having another dream of this world, and someone woke her up, don't worry."

"How can I not worry? She's just… so special to me…" I slumped against the chair again.

"…And you want to see her more than ever." She took the words right out from me. Even if I thought I had this crippling need under control, the truth was that I didn't, nostalgia caught up with me more often now, and even for just a minute, I wanted, no, I needed to see her again. I wanted to embrace her, and take in her scent of blossoms, and talk with her, most of all, I just wanted her to be next to me laughing. _I wanted to be the one to make her laugh._

"Yes." I stood and ran my fingers through my hair that was cropped shorter than the last time I had seen _Chihiro_.

With another sigh, I said, "I have to go, I'm sorry. I haven't been the best guest for the last three hours."

"Go if you must, Haku, but if you ever need anything, you know you are welcome here."

"Thank you." I bowed deeply; I really did mean my thanks.

I shifted quickly into my other form and left Zeniba's residence. The air brushed against my scales smoothly, and my long body danced through the delicate wind, remembering the time when she had been flying with me. The thought saddened me since I knew I would most likely never have the honor of repeating the experience.

Back in my home, I brushed my feet taking off any dirt from them. I didn't want my wood floors to be dusty, it wouldn't be right for a master to have a filthy entrance, and then again, I wasn't a master any longer. Since _she _broke Yubaba's spell, I could only remain another day with the witch to tell her I would refuse her apprenticeship, it was convenient since she was going to banish me from her bathhouse that day also. It just wasn't possible for a spirit who had been chained down because he didn't know his name to suddenly have that knowledge and stay willingly. Though it wasn't the best place for a river spirit enslaved to witch, I still missed it.

The rich food being prepared, vibrant colors, exotic patterns and loud chaos was always that was always interrupted when I came in were my life for so long. At it was only natural for me to feel slightly nostalgic towards it, and though Lin may call me crazy, have affection towards it.

Then again, the bathhouse was not really my home, not truly. Since I woke up here, I promised I would find a way to get to my old home, where ever that may happen to be. But, with Chihiro realizing who I was, and telling me, the melancholic feeling was firmly indented in me. She said I was a spirit that represented the Kohaku River.

Because no spirit could actually _be _something they lived in, they could only represent it; the true soul never left the object or body. And I recognized that, and maybe that was why I felt so lonely. After I had liberated myself from the wretched witch, I found I had not gone back to the river, and I knew why.

We spirits that served in this world could never return to our rightful hosts. Because if we were here, that meant that they were unusable, dead.

Even if we were free from the restraints in this world, we could never go back; it was so painful, knowing that there was almost no chance to enjoy the time we used to have when we owned a host. We would never leave this place in general, and that was another reason for my feverish want to break that mystical barrier that separated the mortal world for this one.

Another sigh escaped my lips as started up the wooden stairs ready to collapse on my bed with a sudden fatigue that hung close to my body. As I reached the thick cushion of my low bed I hungered for the usual sensation of silk brushing my cheek.

All of these sudden memories and feelings of Chihiro were exhausting.

I struggled against the cumbersome door; it was thicker than the first time I had been here, and to be honest, I hadn't really put on too much muscle in my arms since then. The opposite side of the door was grimy and hot; just what one would expect from a boiler room. As I slouched against the entrance, realizing a minute too late that my jacket and the blue blouse I had on would get muggy and dirty.

The clothes I was wearing were strange, for this place at least, last time I had been here, no one wore clothes like the ones humans did. And if my mind was working correctly, these were human clothes, and since they were, where did she get them? This was an old Japan, not the modern one with music players and new cars that I came from.

The thought confused me endlessly as I contemplated all the different possibilities for this young woman to have these clothes. She wasn't wearing clothes like mine either; Eriko was wearing an outfit similar to the one I had to wear when I was doing chores six years ago.

I breathed out frustrated that I couldn't find something that seemed so trivial out. I was usually much faster and keen with my thinking; _it must be this place_ I reasoned. I stepped carefully on the old soft wood down the short hall and wearily; I peered around the wall to see the same multi-armed man grinding away at the herbs before him, some limbs heading behind him to open cabinets.

This creature didn't frighten me as it did then; Kamaji wasn't the horrible spirit I once thought him to be when I first laid eyes on him. He was in fact the first person to acknowledge me as a frightened child, and accept that. The boiler man had done me several favors in the past I left behind when I freed my parents and me.

I looked around and saw the same black puffs of soot that worked for the spider-like spirit. Well, they all _looked _the same, it would be impossible to know if they _were _the same, and beside that point, I didn't have the time to check their identity.

"Kamaji?" his head instantly turned towards me, and his furry eyebrows shot up,

"Sen!"

"Hello," I strolled over to him, careful not to step on the black balls which were clearing around my steps anyway.

"What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, sincerely, I have no idea how I came to be here." He paused in his work and stretched out an arm to pat my head, as if I were still a scared kid, but his hand slipped almost right through me.

"Oh, no, have you eaten yet?"

"No." I couldn't believe I had forgotten to eat. Aside from the fact that I was famished, if I didn't consume food from this place, I would surely disappear in a matter of minutes.

"Here," he poured some tea in a thick cup and handed it to me, it was a miracle I could hold it up. My arms were translucent, meaning I was about to vanish completely, which of course was not good for me.

I sipped eagerly, and by pure accident, scalded my tongue, but managed to swallow the liquid. Instantly, my stomach warmed and my arms solidified. Eternally grateful that Kamaji had known what to do, I handed him the dish back and smiled gratefully at him.

Right then, a knock sounded at the wooden door below the endless cabinets.

"Well look who's here." He murmured beside me, I agreed silently, almost frightened at the knowledge of knowing someone who was like a sister to me was about to see me for the first time in six years.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to… _Vicky Diasper_…(wonder if that's correct)for your suggestion,and also… I could swear I made a line that separated the POV's in the last chapter after "All of these sudden memories and feelings of Chihiro were exhausting." Sorry if that confused people. Anyway, keeping to my schedule, here is Friday's post/update.**

Lin's POV

With a weary sigh, I cupped my hand against the small handle carved into the element. The wood was heavy to most new girls, who weren't many, but to me, it didn't weigh half as much as it used to, after having to deliver food to Kamaji and his workers for the past eternity. The same nostalgic feeling over came me as I glanced back at the newest member of the servants in this stupid bathhouse, I remember I looked behind me the day Sen got here and seeing an empty space. And since then, she had occupied that place behind me, clumsy and awkward at the beginning, but soon maturing and gathering the strength needed to survive this… _place_.

Two months ago, Hana had arrived here, lost, confused and frightened, much like Haku when he'd appeared at the bathhouse. Alike Haku, Hana was stronger than she seemed, and had a slightly ruthless look in her eyes as she took in difficult jobs, and found an efficient way of finishing it. But that was where the similarities ended; Hana was soft spoken and slightly shy despite her uncanny ability to be so keen. The last I had seen of that guy, he had grown much taller, cut his hair shorter and always had his lips pressed together as if that were to prevent him from saying something he would regret.

The muffled sound of talking and the sliding of wood occupied my ears and I dismissed most of it, Kamaji was probably just yelling at those diminutive slaves of his, _again_. It seemed the spirit would never stop quarrelling with them, even if they hardly understood him and it was always a once sided argument. And whenever I happened to have enough patience, which was hardly ever, I'd ask why he even bothered, his only answer was _to make a point, of course_, I suspected the spirit always wanted to help and ever since Sen left, he had only gotten worse. Since he had managed to help her, he figured that by yelling and _making points _he was helping the spirits keep their jobs.

I slipped through the small rectangle, craning my neck and arching my back so I didn't hit myself they way I had the first ten times I had gone through this door. I shuddered as I recalled the nights of having to sleep on my stomach my back was scraped and sore because of this _stupid_ door.

Thankfully, Hana was smaller her petite figure entered through unscathed every time. If she didn't, and ended up like me, I would never have restful nights I'd be hearing her pained noises if she slept on her back or rested on her neck too heavily. And I would do anything to have a comfortable sleep; I would literally do _anything_.I had learned from early on that being rested was something precious here. Especially when it came to cleaning a tub at the end of the day after countless scrubbing and wiping and walking up and down a million steps.

I glanced around expecting to hear the customary scraping of wood against wood that accompanied this room as Kamaji's elongated arms chose herb after herb for the water asked of him. Instead I was greeted with the image of a lean girl with steel gray eyes, shiny locks and a mature face that was enlaced with slight shock as I managed to stand up in front of the door. Evidently I was blocking Hana from entering; she was poking at the back of my knees when I finally noticed. I looked down, slightly hypnotized that Sen was actually here, she was here, she _really _was _here_. Hana's jet black hair swung like a silk curtain as she bent down beside my calf expecting me to move.

Reluctantly I removed myself from the door frame not wanting the younger girl from seeing Sen. Was it wrong for me to want no one else to meet the girl I had learned to like so much so long ago? It was selfish, because I knew if Hana learned to like Sen, she would have something greater than the sisterly bond the brunette and I shared.

"Kamaji… who is she?" a thick tone of suspicion engraved in her light voice.

"She is my niece, she's looking for some work." I couldn't help but let the smile that had been threatening to appear on my face free from the strain of keeping it concealed. I thought of when he had said the phrase to me before, when I was outraged he had the human in his boiler room. She had caused havoc upstairs everybody recognized the stench that they brought with them even if it was a rare occasion.

And now, there was no such mayhem no stench hung in the air around her. There was something gravely wrong with Sen; this wasn't the human girl that had been here before.

"Sen… why… how are you… here…?" my voice finally sputtered out and the level I spoke in lowered as the only reason she could be here finally dawned on me. I struggled for air as a crushing reality brought tears to my eyes.

"No… Sen, you can't be…" I choked on my words and struggled like no other to prevent the waterfall threatening to spill on my cheeks. I grasped the wooden pale in my hands tightly as I took in the drastic change in Sen I wanted to see what kind of girl she was when she died.

**Yes, I know, VERY short chapter, I don't think this should qualify as a chapter as it is so short, but I made a drastic change to it last minute. I shortened it up by like four pages and decided I would make that chapter better for next week, instead of having a long chapter I wasn't very happy with. So anyways, sorry. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the lateness of this update/chapter. My computer was being an a** and the spacebar stopped working, so for a day I tried to fix it. Only to end up ripping the key off, and then the next two days putting it back on. Thanks to my complete awesomeness (you have none.) I successfully fixed that problem yesterday and now it works perfectly after a few false alarms. Um, anyways, I spent the weekend erasing and reviewing this chapter in my notebook, I ended up re-writing half of it again because I became inspired and decided that part wasn't good enough. And yesterday, I didn't want to type it up because I was too lazy to try and read all the revisions I made in my freakishly small and scrawny writing. Anyways, here it is, hope you like it, and please review, they are severely appreciated and if you have suggestions, please share, thank you.**

She settled in rather quickly, after all, knowing how this place worked helped out much more than she could have imagined. Last time, she had just been a frightened and rather spoiled kid, who couldn't really do much. But she had to mature since her first meeting with Yubaba; it had been a pivot point in her stat at the bathhouse. From that moment on, she had realized she had to be the one responsible this time, not her parents who were pigs at that moment.

Since then, she had changed and morphed into a 'tougher' version of the Chihiro in 2001. That was the person who, six years later, made her second contract with the hideous witch. It wasn't easy, considering what the human girl had done the first time she was here, but because of the rule that she had on her she gave the adolescent a job anyway.

"Man, you've grown, Sen." The name 'Chihiro' had been taken from her again, it had been turned back to Sen, and the girl was just getting used to it again. She shrugged, preferring not to speak about herself, sure she had gotten taller, and most of her 'baby fat' was gone by then, but she didn't see herself as a different person.

So instead of saying something back, she focused on Lin. There was something strange with her, something out of place, as if she were hiding something, because she avoided Chihiro's gaze more often than not, and she spoke in a cautioned manner. For the past four minutes she had been observing the woman with her critical eyes, inspecting her to find the thing that was off. She was tempted to reach into that thin little book from the blue bag on her arm to read her tidy little notes on her friend. But she resisted, deciding to wait until the other woman had gone off to sleep to think more profoundly on the matter.

Besides being aware of Lin's body language, she was very conscious of the stares from all the frog/amphibian men and maids who recognized her. Most weren't very pleased to see her back, but the girl couldn't blame them. She had, after all, let in a No-Face into the bathhouse; it had devoured at least three of them, given them fake gold and destroyed half of the property along with many plates, not to mention the disgusting trail of goo.

Most of all, Chihiro was most attentive to the glare the girl with the black hair and burnt caramel eyes was giving her. When she caught the other girl's gaze she held it with perseverance and determination as if not willing to lose a war to her, until Chihiro looked away. She was annoyed at Chihiro, that much was obvious, she didn't know why, gosh, she didn't even the know the girl's name.

"Ah, here we are." They stepped off the elevator and into the sleeping quarter the maids/workers stayed in. Hues of purples, blues, greens and red danced across the silent covers as our shadows darkened the room until Lin brightened it up with a small lantern. I was on the tips of my toes as I tried to not step on the pillows and blankets on the floor.

Salmon pink fabric was tossed to the girl, along with a dark blue uniform. The usual maids' clothes were gathered in her arms, while Lin continued to drag out more and more shirts from the cabinet, deciding which one would fit better.

"There are some shirts that might actually fit you now," Muttered Lin, "back then, you were scrawnier than Hana." She nodded to the strange girl, Chihiro was glad that she now knew the girl's name; she wouldn't have to call her the 'creepy girl' anymore.

"You'll sleep in that corner from now on, next to Shizuka and me." Chihiro nodded and glanced out the open wooden door. The sun was almost down, the violet sky fading into a peaceful dark blue shade. Twinkling lights shined back at her, littering the dark sky of the silent night.

She quickly changed behind a separator in the corner of the room. After leaving her old clothes in her blue bag she left the pink shirt folded ready to be used for tomorrow. As she slipped out from behind the rice paper, she heard talking and giggling becoming louder and louder.

Chihiro started towards her blanket and pillow as swarms of maids rushed around her. She struggled, but somehow managed to reach her sleeping area with a minor bruise on her left shin from knocking it with some else's knee. Finally when almost all the women were on the floor sleeping soundly, the brunette bent down to slide under the thick covers.

A couple minutes passed, and still, Chihiro couldn't get a second of sleep when she heard someone,

"What happened to you, Sen?" the voice startled her, but she soon realized it was only Lin on her side staring at her intently.

Chihiro wasn't about to answer Lin so casually about such an ambiguous question. There were just too many possibilities, and she didn't want to say something that Lin had no business in. The question could mean anything from her physical appearance to… well anything else.

The girl wasn't an open book, but she wasn't carved out of stone. One thing she knew how to be, was cautious. She knew if one got too close, you could get hurt, whether it was about fire or relationships, it applied the same. So until she was entirely sure the only people awake were Lin and herself, Chihiro wouldn't open the mouth that had caused her problems many years ago.

Finally, when she wasn't confident no one else was awake besides the two of them, Chihiro traveled through the room to the door and went outside. She purposely left the door ajar and waited, sitting down with her legs beneath the railing and staring at the beautiful night before her. Not long after that, she could hear footsteps near her, and she mentally prepared herself to answer that question.

But it never came; the footsteps passed her without stopping and disappeared down the steps leading to the hallway. A confused expression plastered itself on her face, as she realized Lin had just walked right past her. Had she caused Lin to be annoyed by not answering her question? Or was Lin intending for Chihiro to follow her?

_Well if she's annoyed, that's too bad_, she thought, as she rested her forehead against the wood and taking in the breezy wind billowing softly. Moments later, a figure bent down and held something towards her, the darkness made the figure look like a demented blob of darkness, essentially frightening her.

"Come on, it's just rice." With a grateful nod, Chihiro nearly devoured the thing, minding her manners until there were only a few mouthfuls of the packed grain.

"Thank you… a lot, I haven't eaten something yet, except the tea from Kamaji." She said looking at what she thought was Lin's face, and then turned to face the dark night and moon once more.

She heard Lin sigh,

"I can tell by just looking at you that you aren't the same Sen that left this place." She laid down in similar manner as she had the first night Sen had been there, talking with her about Haku and sorts.

"People change." It was embarrassing to talk about herself and though she had been mulling over how to approach the conversation, Chihiro still found herself unprepared. But Lin wasn't as hesitant as her counterpart, she was determined to know Chihiro, and when Lin was determined, nothing stopped her.

"Not like you have. People change, that's just the course of nature, but people don't change from a naïveté to a cynic in five years."

"Six years." Said Chihiro through gritted teeth as a frown marred her features. Lin was surprised at her change of mood the reaction was very unfamiliar to her, but concern overpowered that first feeling of shock.

"So what happened?"

"Nothing 'happened'."

"Sen, you can't hide things from me. I know you want to be strong, I can see it in you, but talking about your feelings isn't a sign of weakness, you know."

"I'm perfectly fine, okay? Nothing bad has happened to me! Why don't you just drop it?" it was infuriating to have Lin question her like she was accused of a crime. Not liking to talk about your feelings wasn't a crime, why couldn't Lin see that? And exactly what business did she have poking her nose into what didn't concern her? To Chihiro she was the same person she was before, why didn't Lin recognize that?

"I won't drop it because you're obviously living in denial! I want to help you, please." A long silence crept into heir conversation.

Finally, a groan escaped the younger girl's lips,

"It's nothing big, okay? I… I don't need you help… I don't need anybody's." why did Lin think she needed to be helped? Was there something obviously wrong with her? Maybe Lin was just being paranoid or something, yeah, that must be it.

"Was it family? Friends? Strangers? Tell me who made you this way." Her words caused a bitter feeling to deluge Chihiro, and she almost gave an exasperated groan, **almost**, instead, she forced everyone of those feelings bottling up inside into a furious whisper.

"Do you really want to know? It was my parents? It started with their **stupid **greed and gluttony to eat in the restaurants in this **stupid **place. It was them who scared me senseless, and made me run away from them, to get lost and see Haku, who immediately told me to leave. The way he said that freaked me out even more. So ran to that **goddamnedriver**! And when I **did **reach it, it was a **fucking **ocean! It was Kamaji's fault because he showing me how to get a job here and Yubaba's for actually **giving** me one! It was yours for being so **real** and making me believe in you! And when I finally left this place, I was scared, freaked out, because I had no idea if any of this place was real!

"You don't know the dreams I had of this place, I could swear I was going insane! You don't know how many times I thought I came close to going crazy. You don't know the dreams I've had fro so long, how **real **they seemed only for me to wake up and see they weren't. And they only got worse once **they **died, and my parents changed so much since then! It just got so difficult to be around friends since **that** happened.

"But most of all, it was **my **fault; I'm the only one to really blame for any of this. I was clumsy and didn't reach that river fast enough, I got brainwashed into thinking it would be a good idea to get a job here. It was my fault! It was **my entire** fault. So the answer to your question is this; family, friends, and **MYSELF**. I made myself this way and everyone else didn't exactly help the cause."

Lin just stared at the trembling girl, scared at the sudden outburst. This was not the way either of them thought the conversation would end up, but unfortunately had.

Chihiro glanced at the rice in her palm and chucked it at the ground, waiting to hear it hit the earth. Once that happened, she stood up, feeling raw and uncertain, in a way she felt naked, never once had she done something like that, and there was no way she ever would. The sensation she got of guilt and remorse afterwards was not worth revealing six years of frustration, fear and unhappiness.

Still, she said bitterly,

"Don't ask me 'what happened' again, you know what **happened** now." Enmity laced her voice and she closed the door behind her carefully as to not wake anybody. She felt too numb to sleep which was bad since she really felt like she needed to escape reality for once. It didn't matter if she had a nightmare; all she needed was to be somewhere that the conversation between her and Lin didn't exist. Shutting her eyes, it felt like an eternity before she drifted off into her subconscious.

_She opened her eyes, the sea green sky greeted her and she looked around. The large rocks with ugly frog faces carved into them were spaced out around her every half mile or so at random. The emerald grass billowed softly around her ankles tickling at the exposed skin and as she looked down the girl realized she was wearing a snow white dress. No matter what she looked at, it all seemed to be too bright, like someone had digitally retouched a photo and enhanced its brightness. It was _

_Perplexed she looked once more to the sky, and saw a beautiful dragon twirling like a ribbon in the air. As it approached, Chihiro could see it was bathed in some dark crimson liquid._

_The fantasy creature continued its advance towards the girl, and soon enough, it was there barely a meter in distance. Her heart beat like crazy as the animal glared at her from its menacing stance dripping in thick _blood_. The scent of iron assaulted Chihiro's senses making her need to free herself from its frightening stare more urgent._

_But a small part of her brain was wondering, wanting more time to look at the dragon. It seemed similar, as if she had seen it before, now that she really thought about it, that rare colored mane and strange eyes were far too unique to mistaken for another. That part of her was getting frustrated because it couldn't place a name to this dragon, she hadn't met many dragons in her life, but who was she kidding? She only knew _one_ dragon. But it seemed like too much to ask for this bloodcurdling being to be the same one she had freed from Yubaba's curse._

_Still, she could try, right? It wouldn't hurt to see if it really _was_ him._

_ "Haku?" timidly, immediately after the words left her lips she bit her lower lip, worried she would anger it somehow, but there was a low probability of that, the word had been practically mute as she said it._

_ It growled sending shivers down her arms and legs. They reached her fingertips with and electrifying shock which was replaced by a concern for her safety. She watched as it darted and soon the adolescent was flat on the grass that swayed in a lethargic manner that seemed too out of place with the current situation._

_ The dragon's long muzzle was hardly away enough for her to breathe properly and the red liquid came sliding down its body in hot droplets, _still fresh_. She grasped at the grassy surface beneath her, wishing the earth could open up and swallow her whole. Even if the planet didn't want to cooperate with her, she still prayed _anything_ would take her away from the monster above her. After all, this was a dream and anything was possible if she wanted it enough. Then again, it could easily turn for the worst as it could for the best._

_ Chihiro didn't want to seem weaker than she already did to the dragon, so her teeth were clenched tightly causing her gums to ache. If it meant a bit of pain was going to help her fend for herself against this animal, she would endure it; her chin couldn't start trembling now. But if her face wasn't betraying her, her shoulders were, they started shaking slightly even as she tried to steady them._

_ The girl beneath him was beginning to tremble and a purely sick feeling overcame the dragon. If it backed off and let her try and run for her life, it could chase her enjoying the sensation of hunting before the vile thing attacked her like the others it had that day. Somehow he had managed to enter her dream, and he was enjoying every second of it as he recognized the girl was trying to appear strong. Yet something at the back, most hidden corner of its mind, nagged it, fighting to spread light in the darkness, to have mercy on the poor thing._

_ But since when had the dragon representing the Kohaku River have mercy on such weak things? Never since the day it had been created by Yubaba, she had given Haku the opportunity for power, and the foolish human had taken it. Now he was regretting that choice. Because while most spirits were one whole with themselves, this spirit had been split up into two very different forms by the dark magic the witch had given him._

_ And the one now dominating the situation didn't want to give up its control. There was a war between the human and the dragon, because for the last year, he had been slipping up more and more on the barriers that had once been very strong. The dragon was anything but stupid; it had seen its opportunity and had been very keen on taking it. The wilder part of him was after blood, having been confined since the day that _girl _had appeared in Haku's life. It had been free before her and it would be now._

_ It snarled when a stern voice rang in its head, **stop! Don't you dare hurt her! **That voice that had commanded over the dragon for five years was once more threatening its survival._

_ **No!** it growled back, it couldn't let that spirit take over again, he would only get stronger now that the girl was back. It would fight, and fight it did, until the barbaric animal could do so no more, and it felt that cleansing sensation spilled and ravage its dark, sick mind. It burned, scalded like the worst potion possible, like fire spreading or vines with sharp thorns wrapping themselves around him and shattering everything of him._

_ Painful was an understatement, its body ached everywhere, like jagged glass piercing its skin. It was crippled now; it knew there was no way the human was giving up after almost finishing his intended task; dragging the animal back into its cage._

_ **No! NO! No! No! **It chanted furiously but finally the human won, and once more, the Haku everyone knew was back. With his internal battle over, his gasped in relief as exhaustion claimed his body. He opened his eyes to meet a pair of steely gray orbs beneath him._

**So… tell me what you think, is it getting better? Or worse? Like I said above, please review. T_T. Also, please tell me if the chapter is confusing, because there was an instance when the 'page breaks' weren't showing up and it confused people. If that happens, and if you have a suggestion of how to fix that, it would be greatly appreciated.**


	7. Chapter 7

** Sorry for not uploading last week's chapter, so here it is, along with this week's. If you read, please review.**

I gasped, _was it real or not_? **No, it wasn't real, it was just a dream**, _**idiot**_**, how could it, I just woke up.** But it felt so **real** the way Haku brushed his hand through my hair, and smiled like he was the happiest person in the world. The way his body rustled under his clothes and the way the breeze did wonders to his scent and brought it to me to savor. There was no way that was a project of my imagination, or maybe I had just been watching too many anime shows lately and I had all the poses stuck in my memory. Yet, how in the world could it have been real, there was just no way. Maybe my want for Haku is making me delirious.

Either way, whether it was real or not, I now had to push it aside to face the new day in the bathhouse. I would have to deal with the conflict that would arise between Lin and I because of my damned fault. I had said too much wanted her to understand me far too greatly and I had slipped, I had let things out and now there was no going back. If I just hadn't said anything, things would be fine, but now I'm sure Lin is going to be so furious with me. She won't say anything, that's certain, she'll probably just ignore me or talk to me in a bitter tone, but she wouldn't confront me about it, at least not while others were around.

Now thinking about my actions with a clear head, I seriously **was** a brat, I had thought I had grown out of it matured even. But last night had shown me otherwise, I was still just an idiotic girl that didn't know what to say when her head wasn't clear.

With a sigh, I got ready for the day, enjoying the fact that no one else was awake yet. I slipped on my shirt and fixed the thick blankets to look just like they had before I had slept in them. Satisfied, I hurried out the door after making sure my white bag was hidden in the depths of my bed. It seemed ridiculous, but that bag had soon become my most treasured possession.

Wait, it wasn't blue, she frowned… Now that she thought about it, the blue bag she had brought into the car, if she remembered correctly, had been left at Eriko's place. And instead the bag she had thought had been a dark blue was really a pale white color. The thinking made her head hurt slightly, and she recalled the head injury; **that must be it, I was only imagining it**, she thought. Still, it was very troubling, **what else have I been hallucinating?**

Instead of thinking more of it, I stepped outside and stretched, yawning slightly. I wondered where the kitchen area was, ever time I was going to eat Lin always brought the food. I had no idea of where I was going to get food for myself from now on. This was a problem. I enjoyed the cool air of the brisk morning for a bit longer and stepped down the ridiculous amount of stairs.

I liked the fact that everything was tight, and compact, there were many nooks and crannies which I found interesting. And on one of my many trips down unfamiliar hallways, I spotted another girl, a year or two older than me with the same uniform. Her straight dark hair came down to her jaw in soft yet loose strands. She spotted me immediately next to a rice paper sliding door.

The girl smiled and introduced herself as Kira, but I was hardly paying attention because I was staring at her features. Asian marked her face as well as feline. Her dark, orb-like eyes had this slight mischievous glint to them that I could only associate with a kitten. They also curved the way a kitten's did, and her nose was slightly pinker than the rest of her skin and I imagined it as a cute kitty's nubby nose.

Shaking my head of those thoughts, I followed her after introducing myself. Surprised she immediately called me by Sen, I decided to call her Kira also, and convenient too since I had no idea of her surname. She and I walked through the halls talking in hushed whispers surprisingly finding many things in common.

"Hey, Kira, how long have you been here?"

"A while, I think about five years?"

"So you know where the kitchen is, right?" she laughed at me when my stomach rumbled embarrassingly.

"Yeah, come on, in thirty minutes, the morning rush hour starts, you don't want to get caught up in that." I knew far too well that this place seemed to produce people out of nowhere in a matter of seconds, for example my difficult journey to the man with the bath tokens my first time cleaning a bath.

She turned and twisted with an amazing grace as we hurried to where some sizzling and smell was being emitted. It got slightly warmer as we entered the kitchen and a waft of delectable odors attacked my senses. Kira had three coins in her hand as she motioned me to follow her, apparently I had stood there for a minute taking in the smell.

"I have to pay for the food, right?"

"Yeah, it's not free, but I'll lend you some money until you get your own. It comes in twice a month in a dark purple bag near the entrance of the baths. You have to get there early and not lose your key because sometimes, some of the others can take some coins from your bag. After storing the money, you to put the baggy back and lock it up again. It's as easy as that."

"How much do we get?"

"Well, it's not much, I mean, there's a ton of us workers, and though this place is filthy rich we don't all get that large of wages." I nodded; I understood perfectly it would be difficult to give so many people a large sum of money and keep the bathhouse running so well. Besides, Yubaba wasn't the generous type.

"The food isn't expensive, so soon you can earn money, you know." She shrugged as shoulder and turned to the frog man behind a long bar running across the room. His uniform was slightly stained but clean enough to make me comfortable eating his food. He took the money and placed into a strange box, and turned around to get the food, not five minutes passed as he gave them both two bowls of steaming white rice with nori on it.

"This is the basic breakfast, for another coin you get a side dish of your choice. You can't get anything different for breakfast, but lunch and dinner are a different story. There's so much to choose from, especially if the Spirits grant us with leaving some unfinished dishes, the cleanup brings them to this smaller kitchen for us." I nodded, taking the chopsticks and a cup of tea in one hand and my rice in the other as she lead us up some stairs and around may corners until we were at a secluded place.

"I like you, so I'll trust you with my sacred place, okay?"

"Okay, sure?"

"I'm serious; it took a long time to find a perfect spot, so you can't tell another soul about it." A grave look adorned her face; it seemed out of place with her usual joking and fun personality. I nodded.

A grin broke out, and she slid a diminutive door open, we both crawled through with ease. And I gasped; a fresh green bamboo mat was rolled out fitting the space perfectly, beige cushions were laid out, a long dark wood table stood low in the middle making two separate spots. Kira pushed me over to the other side, where I found a cushion I happily sat on and put my food on the table like her. Beside my hand, I found a small lamp with a candle in it and the delicate paper was sitting beside three matte stones pilled on each other. On the wall beside me was a tall panel, like those outside in the halls, but this one wasn't full of rich colors and drawings, it had a simple, yet beautiful, painting of Japan's cherry blossoms.

It was simple, not large and extraordinary. Unlike Western rooms I had once seen in magazines and TV shows, Japanese rooms weren't filled with a million different patterns in one room, or had wallpapers or even more that five colors. I admired my homeland for it's simplicity, and in this room, I was reminded why I did in the first place.

The place wasn't big, it wasn't even a room. It was more like an inverted balcony, a black panel hiding whatever was outside. Kira, smiling widely, pulled it aside, I slid into the wall perfectly, and I found a soothing sky, a fresh prickle of air and a lovely sense of peace.

"I love this place." This only caused Kira to look more pleased, if that was even possible.

"Good, cause I eat here almost every day. Come on, lets eat." We dug in,

"So is this what you mean by being able to save up?" I asked with a tasty mouthful of rice and nori.

"Yeah, it took my three and a half years to make it this way, and I'm not letting anyone else enjoy it. I worked hard for it, I don't want it spoiled." I nodded. After a while more of eating and talking, I rested with my back on the wall finally full.

"We start working at seven; it's almost six forty,"

"We should go then." Taking our dishes back to the kitchen and dumping them into a large tub of water, we headed off to the maid's meeting room it was the room next to the stairs leading to the sleeping area. The bathhouse was already starting to prepare for the Spirits' arrival in the evening, and the occasional morning Spirit that walked in with money

"Sen!" Lin called. I turned around to see her with Hana staring daggers into my forehead. Lin didn't seem mad, or even annoyed, "I've been looking for you, you scared me!" what? She should be furious at the way I spoke to her last night, not concerned for my well being.

"Lin, hurry up, we're starting!" another woman's voice interrupted her, and Kira walked away with a slightly moody expression on her face which perplexed me but I followed her to a corner of the room with a blank expression. Now was not the time to appear as weak as I actually was, I had to look confident and serious, not that it was difficult, I had been doing so for a very long time.

The older maids were in charge of a group of younger ones. Each maid did the same thing as the other, but at a different schedule, for example, one would clean the floors at one time and then two hours later, another group would clean them up again. I liked the routine and orderliness of the bathhouse.

"Sen!" I looked up at who had barked my name, "You're in my group now, you're paired up with Kira from now on as you two seem to be friends."

A frogman came in with a list; he read out a list of orders from 'higher up' and gave a few certain pairs other jobs than the rest of their group. With that, the five groups left, and I noticed Lin grumbling something but didn't catch what it was. My whole group split into their pairings and started talking; nobody seemed like a group anymore as they all left in different directions. Some took the stairs others headed off to different elevators.

We were doing the baths first,** lucky me, I get to start with hard work**, I thought sarcastically. Kira and I had scored an empty elevator and stood peacefully beside each other, each now with a wooden pale with cleaning utensils.

"Gosh, I hate those baths, they're almost impossible to clean. And the worst part is that we have four baths to wash, not including any specific 'orders' from 'above'. It's going to take _forever_." Kira groaned and looked at the ceiling of the elevator.

"By the way, you don't know how to clean one of these, do you?" oh gosh, here come the difficult questions.

"I actually do." I answer.

"How?"

"I… I've been here before."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I mean I was here before my parents and I happened to cross the border of the Spirit World one time. That time with Lin cleaning the big tub."

"Seriously? Don't kid around, Sen."

"I have no reason to, I was actually here six years ago when I was around ten. I've… I've never wanted to come back, you know, and I don't understand how I did this time, I don't really remember much besides me getting into my parent's car. Then I appeared here… again." I didn't really like to explain since Kira was staring rather intensely at me while I did.

"Oh… gosh. Wow, I never knew humans could do that. So how long did you stay here?"

"Well, after Kamaji asking Lin to take me to Yubaba, I got a contract, my old name was taken, and I stayed here… for a while. It wasn't long, I know that, but I never did take much care for that, I was trying to not get my neck chopped of by Yubaba or the frogmen or anything in general."

"Were you scared?" her voice was suddenly timid and eerily quiet, I took a while to answer,

"Yeah, all the time." I didn't like to admit it, but I thought Kira would keep it to herself, she had asked me to do so before to her so I was confident she would return the favor.

"Well, lets get going, right?" she hopped from the elevator and we hurried to the bath area, only two Spirits were currently bathing, everyone else was either cleaning or supervising the baths.

"I have 4, 8, 9 and 15 routinely, so how about we do 4 and 9 together, since those are the slightly larger ones, and then you do 4 and I'll do 15, okay?" I nodded, she told me to wait here since she had forgotten to get some bath water tokens just in case we needed them.

I took her pail in my other forearm and waited, casually inspecting the people around me. Everyone was the same, yet everyone was different, different hair, same working uniform, same shoes, different kimonos, and different souls. They weren't just robotic copies of one person, they were unique and different, yet they all seemed like the same image repeated over and over. It wasn't that I found it difficult to believe that they were all very different people; I was sure they all were, but it was that I just had really gotten a chance to be proven otherwise.

"Hey, are you okay?" someone's clear voice brought me out of my reverie, and my head snapped in that direction, "You seem sad."

It was only Kira. "Um, yeah, I'm just thinking." My eyes immediately went to the bowls of food, and they instinctively fell upon sushi.

"Let's eat, okay?" I nodded and took the plate of raw fish, rice and nori from her hands, looking at it with a feverish hunger that was almost blinding. Such hypnotic staring effectively caused me to trample over Kira's bare heels, and some strange looks from the other maids and frogmen on the first floor.

I sat down, leaning my back on the wall with my stomach rumbling, thoughts whirling as Kira split the food evenly onto two square plates. The chopsticks expertly separated the food until everything had been effectively divided and she pushed gave me my own pair and plate.

Famished, I dug in a second, likewise, so did Kira. Though I was really hungry, and Kira was eating just like I was, it felt… not right, I usually took my time trying to be respectful. I guess all those years my father's mother spent on making sure my manners were impeccable were thrown out the window as I wolfed down every bit of rations on my dishes.

After eating, we sat. We sat and stared at the four bowls of food we had just devoured. I wasn't sure about Kira, but I had _never _eaten this much, this quickly, and I was horrified. Honestly, I didn't _know _so much could actually _fit_ into a person's stomach. It had been fantastic while I was eating, but now, as I stared at the empty dishes, I was starting to regret every mouthful of it.

I groaned, "I seriously think I can't stand up. What about you?"

"Same here, I can't even _move_!" Kira had been flat on her back for about five minutes now, and I was sincerely thinking about taking her seriously about that, until, with a lot of groaning, she was hoisted on her elbows. Her cattish eyes staring at me lazily, her lips slightly parted as she begged me to help her up. I tried, I swear, I _tried_, but I think that all the food had made her twelve pounds heavier, and add that I myself was feeling on the brink of a comatose, there was no way it would happen.

So ten minutes later, I tried once more, this time successful, and said,

"We are never eating this much again, agreed?"

"YES." She leaned against the wall and bent down with much effort to not topple over and took her pail, "We should head off to the upper floors we're needed there."

"Did a frogman tell you?" I followed her,

"No, it's our schedule, bath washing first, floor cleaning, furniture wiping and lastly, bath duty. There are tons more of jobs here, of course, but we get those four every other month, the in-between months we don't have furniture wiping, instead we have an open time, where we get any job that needs to be done. "

"Bath duty?"

"Yeah, we have to assist the girls in the kimonos bathe the spirits; we're basically their call-maids. I'm not fond of it, it's like I'm their slave, I hate that, I'm my own person and I get to do what I like." She hissed her eyes dark with menace and her hands clenched in fists, I backed off a stride as we walked. It was a rather stupid way of thinking, Yubaba enslaved everyone here the moment they signed a contract with her Kira knew that. Thinking she could have her own way… was, well, it was idiotic, but it was admirable… slightly.

Shaking my head, I followed my new acquaintance up to do more of the tedious chores this place needed done.

**Sorry, I know, more excuses, but I've been moving for the past… who knows how long, and well, I haven't had much time to write. I can assure that I can't follow the schedule I wanted, now I guess, I'll try to post once every two weeks, I can't have a specific day though. Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, and please review.**


	8. Chapter 8

_Well, that was exhausting, and it's only the first day... _with that last thought my mind started wandering off into something I could only call an abyss. My head felt light and my body heavy, it was strange to say the least my fingers tingled but my palms were burning as I laid under the covers.

_"Chihiro?" her head whipped around to see Haku, standing with the same clothes, but instead of blue and white, they composed of grey and white. His dark red sandals clicked softly on the bridge's wooden base._

_ "Where are we?" she asked, utterly confused, last time she had dreamt of Haku, he had been encased in blood, dirty, disgusting blood. Blood that had stained the beautiful flowing dress she had appeared with, the red liquid that had flowed onto her pale skin and had stuck there until she had woken up. It would have eased her conscience if it had been _his _blood, she had seen him bleeding before, but this time, the beast had been covered in someone _else's _blood. And skillfully, Haku had avoided answering questions of the reasons why._

_ "A place I used to enjoy coming to before I… before I became a spirit of the river. It's so old, I have forgotten the name, but I know every detail of it, that much is certain."_

_ "Really?" he stretched his hand to her, she energetically took it, and smiled at him briefly before glancing and the temples beyond the bridge from the direction she had been coming from. The red, greens and browns reflected back at her in a dark and ancient way, but still, the colors were bright, just like in the other dream. And just like in that dream, the colors seemed fake, too good, and digital._

_ "Haku, why are you in my dreams? _How_?"_

_ "Straight to the point, huh?" Chihiro raised an eyebrow at the lethargic tone in his voice, as if he were tired of her already._

_ "Well," he tightened his grip, "ever since you left I had been trying to get to you, trying in any way to reach your world and your consciousness. But even all the power Yubaba gave me wasn't enough, still I've been trying, and I got a small step towards you a couple of days ago, but it was very brief. I suspect you were probably close to the abandoned fair. But I didn't get much more, until last night that I was able to get into your dream."_

_ "Okay. Then why were you all… covered in blood? Is that part of what you need to do to get in my dreams?"_

_ "Oh, for the sake of the Spirits! Chihiro, what kind of question is that?"_

_ "I would like an answer…"_

_ "Well, your answer is 'no'. I do not… _cover_ myself in blood to try and get into your dreams."_

_ "Haku, you know that is not what I meant." The silence threatened to make either one of them burst out, but Chihiro gladly continued ignoring the way Haku's bowed head made her feel guilty. After he had turned back into his human form, things had happened, and those things now made her hand feel right when tucked in his. But she needed some answers._

_ "I meant… do you have to _kill_ to get into my dreams, I know that wasn't your blood, Haku."_

_ "Sen!" he dropped her hand as if it were some plague he might get infested with and glared at her. Momentarily, Chihiro stood still, shocked that he gone back to calling her Sen, just like he had after he'd changed into human. She had insisted he call her Chihiro since they weren't strangers anymore and the fact that he had now called her that again brought something to the surface that could only be called fear._

_ "Master Haku!" she spat bitterly, referring back to the time she had 'met' him in Yubaba's office, he had confessed to her that he had to keep up appearances and that he hadn't enjoyed talking to her in such a frosty manner._

_ "I will not talk about that, all right? We can talk about anything else, but _not _that."_

_ "Why not!"_

_ "Because I _won't._" he ground out, turning his back on her, palms leaning against the closest temple's walls in an attempt to control himself and his mental barriers which were splitting at the seams._

_ **So your weak little friend is curious, huh, Kohaku? Is she not the one you keep so dearly to your idiotic heart? And you are not even willing to tell her the truth? You truly are pathetic. **The words crept in, slipping through the cracks and imperfections of his walls. They were poisonous and vile, snaking through his brain like vines, just running around waiting their chance to expand and take over a feeble garden._

_ "Shut up!" he growled, dangerously close to the edge of his sanity._

_ "I haven't said anything…" his now heightened senses let him feel Chihiro shrink away from him, a couple of steps would maintain her safe… hopefully._

_ "I wasn't speaking to you," he sighed, weak and still trying to fight off the monster within._

_ **You may not, but I see what is really happening, Kohaku. I saw the way you avoided every one of that girl's questions about me. You wanted to tell her, you wanted to while you were laying down in that green field talking about your petty lives, you want to tell her. Her, the girl you claim to love, **its dark, menacing voice rumbled in his mind as the human gritted his teeth trying to ignore what the monster was saying, **and yet, you are afraid she will reject you. If you love her so much, tell her about you, tell her about us.**_

_ "I said shut up!" trembling, Haku slid to the ground, feeling everything like a bomb, just made to destroy, and if he didn't control himself, he would let the beast slip through and claim him. He was afraid above all things._

_ "And I said I haven't said anything." Cried Chihiro, scared witless at his actions, they were not the ones she was used to seeing in Haku. He was a controlled man, he was gentle and considerate, he cared, he had proven that to her when they had spent all that time in her dream talking. It was nothing that could be compared to what she was seeing now; a man breaking down, shaking and talking to himself like a madman._

_ "Don't talk, Sen! Get away from me," he shouted, but regretted them the moment they left his lips, "No, wait, just give me a minute." His mercurial words were shaking everything inside her, he could tell, and he glanced behind him in a pained move to see her step back, not seeing the steps to the temple behind her. Her ankle caught on the wood and she stumbled backwards arms flailing in a futile attempt to save her from the impact. Her body shook in pain as her left ribs and shoulder caught most of the force._

_ "Wake up, wake up, wake up now!" her arms covered her face, and muffled most of her voice, but Haku heard her._

_**Oh. Sorry to spoil your little reunion, but, a little friend is coming. **_What?_ He thought. __**A certain dragon by the name of… Jun? Do you remember him now? **__A sharp, humorless laugh rang in his head, infecting him._

_ And that was the end of his control. He let go of his worries, of the knowing a shivering teenager was currently trying to wake up, of the monster within him clawing and tearing at his mind. He was done with it, it was exhausting to keep fighting, and in those short ten minutes since the dream began, Haku was ready to fall dead._

_**That's right. You can not win over me. Besides, you know you can't go against our dear acquaintance without me. **_Did you do this?_ He thought once more. __**Do you want me to be honest? **_You are incapable of honesty, you _monster_._** Not entirely true, Kohaku. But I will tell you this; I am not completely cut off from Yubaba's powers, or her mind. There are occasions when I become bored, and the witch has a … **_**refreshing **_**point of view. **_You evil thing! _He spat in his mind, before surrendering completely, but he heard the last few words the dragon gave him, __**you and I, we are not two separate things. What I am, you are too.**_

_The monster sprang from out of now where, replacing Haku's body and attracting Chihiro's troubled attention. Its pearly scales shown in the sun, and its elongated muzzle snarled exacerbating her senses. She scrambled up the stairs, ignoring the sharp pain extending from her elbows, forearms and back._

_ "Just wake up!" she cried._

_** So, how did you like the late chapter? Review please!**_


	9. UPDATE SORRY

So, I am truly sorry, to the extremely small amount of reader that I have, that I've not updated in a really long time, but I just haven't had the time, personal problems have been plaguing me. So for that reason I haven't done anything with this story. I am seriously wondering whether I should continue or just give up already. This is going up to say that the story is on an official HIATUS.


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